On Skwizas, the senior citizens have a bounce in their step
|||There are two shows that are making waves on TV right now and both of them feature elderly people. The productions are Betty White’s Off Their Rockers and Sony Max’s Senior Smackdown.
In White’s show, the former Golden Girls star has a group of seniors citizens place themselves in situations where they require help. Unsuspecting good Samaritans who are inclined to help them find out that they are being pranked. Why does this work?
Because the elderly folk are in on the joke, are having fun and are not being grumpy, like some old people can be.
The opposite can be said for Senior Smackdown. This one is not for the faint-hearted because it involves angry, old people in physical altercations. Yes, you might see them walk with care, backs bent over due to weakness because their bodies are giving in, but when they are angry, all of this gets thrown out the window and they attack whoever is in their path. If you get past the fact that this violence can result in physical harm, the footage is quite funny – again, because it is the elderly doing it and not Floyd Mayweather.
This is also the drawcard of local SABC2 sitcom Skwizas; it stars the mature actors Lilian Dube and Mary Twala. The premise of the show concerns what people in South Africa go through after they retire.
They often have to begin a new life all alone.
This is mainly because everyone who is younger is either going to work or school and is seldom around.
So the retirees find themselves in their own cliques, doing things that old people do, from gambling at casinos to being part of stokvels, there is no limit to the activities that these senior citizen can get up to.
Twala and Dube are joined by fresh faces in the new season, who include Tshepo Maseko (Isidingo, Saints & Sinners) and Lele Ledwaba (Stokvel, The Wild). This pair have a talent for comedy and should fit right in.
Maseko might have taken a serious role in Saints & Sinners, but his Isidingo character was always cracking jokes – a thing that comes naturally to the actor. Ledwaba is naturally funny and one of those people who will ad lib her lines in a production and still make the script work.
This facelift for Skwizas will surely make it a much more pleasurable show.
Skwizas airs every Sunday on SABC2 at 7.30pm.